DaveW

He and Girardi have to figure things out if he wants to stay in NY, the last thing the Yankees will want to deal with is A-Rod getting benched a good portion of next season.

A-Rod hasn't posted a .850 OPS since 2009, and since then has showed a very steady decline in his slugging, take him out of Yankee stadium and I think that continues. In addition he also has some pretty serious injury concerns, so you can't really count on him for 140 games a year moving forward and is now a below average fielding 3B. I mean yeah, if we only had to pay 2-3 mil a year he would be worth a shot....I guess. But in reality if you are paying him 3 mil a year for 5 years there is a very, very good chance that those last 2 or 3 years he is more or less worthless.

The motivation of the HR record will keep him motivated enough to play "well" FWIW I think A-rod could have another 2-3 years of .820 OPS ability, but the headaches/etc wouldn't be worth it to the majority of franchises. The Marlins are such a joke at this point that it makes total sense for them.

Absolutely not, first off: 50 million over 5 years would be a disaster, since at most he has 2-3 decent years left. Also, he is owed a ton of money for different home run milestones, so the Yankees would have to pick that up as well. I guess if the Yankees wanted to pick up all but 10 million of the contract (5 years, 10 million 2 mil per year) I would possibly consider it, but A-Rod would never come to Minnesota and the Yankees would never do that. I wonder if Seattle would consider bringing him back? Feelings are still a little raw there, but I mean he is better then Chone Figgins! The hilarious thing about A-Rod is he is actually costing the Yankess close to 40 million a year due to the luxury tax!

Yeah that's true. The playcalling in the red zone has prob been the biggest issue. Regardless, this team really could use another WR, Simpson's health is to iffy to rely on him and everyone else is closer to a #3/#4. I wonder if we could get Bowe for a 3rd or 4th round pick since he is about to be a FA and the Chiefs are awful. Would that be worth exploring?

Yeah, this is an actual problem. Some of the articles are 4-6 paragraphs that could have better been said in one or two sentences to generate discussion. It has gotten to the point that I don't even click on articles because they have, by and large, been pretty bare bones of content. To me, articles for the sake of articles aren't going to promote the forum - good articles will. And sometimes, when the content is a bit more dry, it's ok just to wait until there is more fodder for thought. The problem got more and more evident as the season bled out and it's a friggin epidemic of worthless articles these days. Exactly, I appreciate people want to break into blogging or whatever, just keep in mind that you often only get one shot at many readers, and if your first or majority of articles are lacking substance/boring you basically have lost that reader forever. I employ 7 writers for my "day" job, 3 of which are full time. Myself and my partner have told them this multiple times, we'd much rather have our writers pumping out 5 great articles a day then 10 mediocre articles.

See and I thought it was my blog post (that got promoted to "article" status) about Mauer that was "to blame." But it turns out, it was your fault! Based on the rest of your comment, however, it appears that you would prefer I and other "non-core" writers keep all of our thoughts to ourselves so we don't keep beating those dead horses you're concerned about. You really might want to consider skipping TD altogether in November because, if they follow the pattern of the past couple of years, once their Offseason Handbook comes out with their own "blueprints" for addressing the Twins' needs, the "core" are going to specifically invite/ask the rest of us to publish our own "blueprints." It sounds like that's exactly what you don't want to see here. And unless I really misread things from the onset, one of the primary goals of "the core group" in setting up TD was to provide an avenue for other bloggers and wannabe bloggers to get their stuff read and discussed by more people. I didn't mean to pick on your "mauer trade" article, and honestly your blogs have the most substance of any of the non core ones, and often times I prefer yours. It just seems that sometimes when we come to the forum 70% of the threads are "articles", it's especially cumbersome in the general baseball thread as it really doesn't create any discussion and just clutters things up. (Again do we really need multiple "awards" winners threads/articles?). I'm not saying articles have no place, I just think people should begin to focus more on QUALITY then quantity before they hit the "submit" button on the blog page. Other wise it potentially becomes bleacher report 2.0 (sans 180 mil valuation and slide shows) which is not a good thing Also, I never ripped TD or what they are doing here I just was suggesting they should try to make the forums more discussion based and less cluttered with articles in the forums, especially articles which have no real substance, so your snarky suggestion of "skipping TD altogether" is a little ridiculous.

My ideal plan would be to only "sit" Plouffe against tough righties, so maybe once or twice a week, I think Plouffe has the potential to improve his at bats against righties, his average isn't much worse and he was still able to hit 12 HR off them this year, I see no reason why he couldn't improve against them overall. But when he faces the Greinkes/Verlanders/Scherzers of the world he should sit (.452, .467, .120 OPS in his career against those guys) in fact maybe we should just have him sit against all Detroit pitchers haha However if Plouffe does end up struggling more then we like, then perhaps you have Chavez start 2-3 times a week for him instead of 1-2. You are right though, Chavez brings zero value against LHP but that isn't a real huge issue IMO, since as a whole the Twins hit LHP pretty well. Chavez also seems like a nice bat off the bench as well, I certainly would prefer him hitting for Carroll late in the game rather then Mastrionni, Casilla or whatever other light hitting MI they have on the bench.

My question: I understand the organization likes Drew Butera, but what are the odds you shell out the 1 mil to keep him around next year? (Super 2 status) wouldn't it be better to simply cut him loose and then try to bring him back on a minor league contract. Also would it be too early to groom him into a coach for the org?

Yeah, I get it, you don't like Mark DeRosa, now grow up and move on. In all seriousness though, there have only been 1 real trade thread thus far (Josh Johnson) and I started a thread on Chavez and Liriano as well, so I guess I am to blame? But to be honest there was no other new topic on this board other then "Should the Twins trade Mauer?" (This has been beaten to death and its obvious it won't happen) The one thing that bugs me is that people feel the need to start there own threads/articles to simply give us there ten point plan to fix the Twins this off-season, to be frank I really don't care to sort through 10 different "articles" by guys who aren't part of the core edit group, I think someone should start a "post your perfect off-season plan here" and keep them all in one thread. In general I think there are to many "article" threads that pop up anyways, since many of the non core edit group (nick, bonnes, seth, parker) actually rarely promote discussion. But this seems to be more of an issue in the general baseball chat, I think a simple "awards" thread would be fine instead of multiple people blogging about who they think deserves the MVP award or what not.

I can honestly say I am not happy for Delmon, the guy was a nightmare as a player, a complete and utter waste of a talent and even a worse person (he assaulted an ump, then went on an anti-Semitic rant in NYC) I will never root for him to succeed and hope he ends up miserable after his playing days, because he deserves it. I will however laugh at the team that decides to give him 4-5 mil guaranteed next year for 90 OPS+ while playing DH. The guy literally hit behind 2 of the best 5 or 6 hitters in all of baseball this year and only managed to post a .707 OPS, that is hilariously awful.

Soooo...now there is speculation that A-Rod gets traded this off-season (To the Marlins), if that happens I can't see any way whatsoever the Yankees feel comfortable heading into 2013 with Chavez as the everyday 3B or anything close to it. Now that doesn't mean they still wouldn't welcome him back, but I do think there is a good chance they try to bring in a young 3B to replace A-Rod/Pencil him in as the every day guy. Again, their are a lot of things working against the Twins in this situation, but perhaps Chavez could see this as his best shot to get some solid at bats in a good baseball town on a team that could actually end up surprising people next season. Either way, IMHO its def worth exploring. Keep in mind he would also provide some depth at the 1st base/DH spot as well in case one of Morneau/Parmelee/Doumit gets injured/struggles-Parmelee

slow clap

As someone who lives in NYC, I can assure you about half the people in this city absolutely despise the Yankees and their fans. I took my girlfriend to a yankees vs Twins playoff game about three years ago when we first started dating and we were both hit with beer bottles for having the audacity of wearing a Twins jersey into Yankee stadium. Later one drunkard had his 7 year old son come up to us, flip us off and say "The Twins ****ing suck", my buddy who was on the other side of the stadium actually got sucker punched by a Yankees fan when he was walking to the bathroom. That's all you really need to know about Yankee "fans" Since then she refuses to goto any sporting events in NYC and frankly I can't really blame her.

I love how this will convince some team to overpay for him this off-season.

If only we had 60 million a year to spend on a rotation....

They said he will be back in 3 months, but he basically has a solid 5-6 months before he needs to even be close to 100% He will be back, and also he is a professional athlete (and a remarkably healthy one at that!) who has top dollar trainers with him at all times, better then any of us can afford/get when we are injured I agree though, the injury at the time did look a lot worse (I thought ACL or Achillies tear off the bat)

Hicks already has developed some power, he hit as many HR's in 2012 as he had in 2010 and 2011 combined. Gomez is a bad example because he waited until he was 26 to show any signs of power, Hicks is still only 22 and showed a spike already. 20 HR power should be the low to mid end of our expectations for him IMO. The kid has the potential to be a really special player in this league, and at worst looks like an elite defensive CF and an average offensive CF.

If the Vikes are inside the ten there is no reason why Peterson shouldn't touch the ball at least 2 of the 3 downs...none at all. (unless the other 2 are going to Harvin in some fashion) It just would be nice to have a Plaxico type guy you could throw a jump ball to down in that area as well, to help spread out the defense. I don't think Rudolph, Aroshmondu or Jenkins are scaring many teams, and Harvin as great as he is just doesn't have the size for one of those type of plays.

It's a little silly to compare Ponder to Manning and Rodgers, who are two of the better QB's of the past 20 years.... but for the record Manning was pretty mediocre his first 16 starts in the league, and Rodgers was able to sit 3 years on the bench before he was ever called upon. I'm not saying Ponder is ever going to be elite or anything close, but lets give him some time to learn and adjust.

I like the part where you tried to use RBI's to explain how Mauer was an "elite" offensive player or whatever you were trying to say. I also liked the part where you compared him to David Murphy. [video=youtube;wlMwc1c0HRQ]

I've read that Mauer's agent asked for an "opt out" in the Twins contract during negotiations and the Twins refused. Seems to me that either Joe or his agent were considering the possibility that the Twins might become non-competitive during the course of the contract and that Mauer might, in that case, prefer to consider other options. Back to back seasons like the Twins have just endured might seem to be exactly the kind of scenario that they were concerned about. As I wrote, I don't expect a trade to even be considered by the Twins. That said, I wouldn't assume Mauer would necessarily refuse it if it did occur, especially If the Twins are out of contention by midseason again this year and the Red Sox are contending. If I were him, I'd certainly be open to that possibility and I can't imagine why he'd be any less receptive. The only reason a player asks for an opt out (see: CC, and ARod) is that they then have the leverage to make even more money down the road by holding the team hostage IF they prove to be worth the money, it has nothing to do with them thinking the team may not be competitive.

Liriano and Baker have considerable upside to them. It makes sense to pursue both for the right price. Pavano has almost zero upside at this point. That's why Pavano would come dirt cheap (minor league contract) Pavano gives you a better shot at a 4.25 ERA and 200 IP then any of DeVries/DeDundo/Walters group.

Keep in mind that the three seasons before last year Pavano was as healthy as can be, in fact he averaged 214 IP a season and a 4.36 ERA, now that isn't going to blow anyone away, but a 4.00-4.50 ERA with 210+ IP is certainly valuable. If you can get him on a Zumaya type deal(1 year, 1 mil, can be reduced to 300k if cut before opening day. +500k incentives for 175 IP) I think you have to roll the dice, again, hes not likely going to give you a 3.50-3.75 ERA, but he can at least eat a ton of innings if healthy and on a team that very well could be starting 3-4 rookies/2nd year guys at SP that could be very important. He is fact getting older, but in 2013 he will be 37 so it isn't beyond the realm of possibilities that he returns from his injury. I'm not advocating signing Liriano+Baker+Pavano, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to think about bringing in 1 or 2 of those guys, then trying to pick up a top talent or two on the FA market or via trade.